St. Helens or St Albans High School

[SR1]

Delighted to receive offers from St Helens and St Albans for DD. Both work from a logistical POV and now trying to decide between the two. Any thoughts please? TIA.

[Daogroupie]

Well done to your dd for doing so well. They are both great schools. I don't know that much about St Helens but I know more about St Albans. It is very dominated by the prep school Wheathampstead. Two classes of 24 in the prep and a couple move to Habs girls, and a few more don't get places at the secondary school but the rest all go to the High School so in each class over half of the girls have been together since the age of 4yrs. It is also a very local school with lots of girls coming from St Albans and the towns surrounding. There are coaches bringing girls in from further afield but I would think that St Helens would have girls from a greater geographical area and from a far wider range of primary schools. What is your personal critieria for choosing between the two for your dd. What is she interested in? DG

[SR1]

Thanks for reply daogroupie. My dd loves English and drama and is probably more suited to a more nurturing environment. I know there will be a new headmistress at sahs who is ex-St. Paul's girls school. Will pm you.

[SHertsDad]

At the moment, we are in a similar dilemma. Does anyone know the relative year sizes of St Helen's junior and its senior school?

[Middlesexmum]

I'm not sure how many girls are in the junior school but there are 100 girls per year in the senior school which I THINK is made up of 50 girls from junior school and 50 new girls. 5 classes per year, 20 per class.

[sillymum]

Hope I was of some help to you SR1. Best of luck for you and your daughter!

[SR1]

Thanks all, really helpful and much appreciated.

[SHertsDad]

Thanks Middlesexmum, looks like there's not much difference on totals between the two schools (St Albans is 45+50 new, as around 5 move onto other senior schools every year).
Though St Albans is 4*24 classes.